KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has ceased to be a substantial shareholder in Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd following recent sell-down in the open market, filings with Bursa Malaysia showed.

       EPF disposed 96 million shares on Monday, which brought down the fund's stake in Serba Dinamik to less than 5%, according to a filing today.

       The EPF owned 377 million shares, or about 10.2% of the company about a month ago.

       But on May 29, a surprised announcement by Serba Dinamik caught investors off-guard.

       Serba Dinamik told Bursa Malaysia that its auditors KPMG had raised concerns over RM3.5bil worth of sales and transactions.

       The company has rejected these concerns and said it would appoint an independent reviewer to assess and verify these concerns.

       On June 22, Serba Dinamik shocked the market after it filed a court case against KPMG.

       KPMG resigned almost immediately, while at least four of Serba Dinamik independent directors also left the company, citing their disagreement with the board's decision to sue its external auditors.

       The crisis has sapped investors' confidence in the once high-flying oil and gas services firm.

       The EPF, on Monday, said it was “gravely concerned” over the latest developments at Serba Dinamik that’s caused a significant loss in shareholders’ value.

       The stock was last traded at 33 sen today, down by about 80% from where it was a month ago.

       The sharp plunge has also caused shares pledged by its founder Datuk Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah to be force-sold in the open market.

       Filings with Bursa Malaysia today showed that Karim's stake in Serba Dinamik was reduced by 46.2 million shares on Monday due to force-selling.

       Karim remained the single largest shareholder in Serba Dinamik with 957.7 million shares, which still give him a 25.8% equity interest in the oil and gas services company.